“Electronic commerce,” commonly known as “e-commerce,” is a type of industry where the buying and selling of products or services is conducted over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks such as cloud networks.
Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices social media, etc.
“Social commerce” is a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services. More succinctly, social commerce is the use of social network(s) in the context of e-commerce transactions.
Examples of social commerce include customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals, social shopping tools (sharing the act of shopping online), forums and communities, social media optimization, social applications and social advertising.
A “social media ecosystem” is a system form by an interaction of a community of social media users with their environment including the Internet and social media sites (e.g., FACEBOOK, TWITTER, E-HARMONY, MATCH.COM, SOCIAL LIVING, GROUPON, etc.). It is a system of interconnecting and interacting parts. A social media ecosystem centers on a consumer experience. Participants in the ecosystem are based on five different types of social behaviors: Creators (e.g., publish, maintain, upload electronic content); Critics (e.g., comment, rate); Collectors (e.g., save, share); Joiners (e.g., connect, unite); and Spectators (e.g., read). While the platforms provide transmission of messages, the spheres of influence now become the consumers who engage in conversations about products and services via the various social media platforms.
There are many problems associated with social media ecosystems with respect to classified listings. A first problem is the security and privacy of the users who post goods or services for sale. Another problem is that removal of classified listings for goods and services that have been sold is typically done manually leading to frustration and dissatisfaction of users who desire the goods or services. Another problem is classified listings are not translated into different languages. Another problem is that classified listing are not automatically categorized or automatically associated with a physical geographic location.
Thus, it is desirable to solve some of the problems associated with classified listing creating in a social media ecosystem.